


Disaster in the Key of D Flat

by seanchaidh



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Angst, Gen, Missing Scene, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-05-01
Updated: 2002-05-01
Packaged: 2018-01-09 12:04:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1145781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seanchaidh/pseuds/seanchaidh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Missing scenes for "There But For the Grace of God" and "Politics." Jack O'Neill's reaction to the mysterious disappearance and reappearance of Daniel Jackson. Originally published in "Gateway to Eternity."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Disaster in the Key of D Flat

**Part I-Annunciation**

I should have known better, but I did it anyway.

"Daniel, we're leaving! Let's go!"

I hollered the words over my shoulder as we made our great escape from P3R233. We'd just set a new record, a total of eighteen minutes on a mission. Well, eighteen minutes by the time we made it back to the Stargate and waited for our errant archaeologist. I wanted to leave _now_. The whole planet was creeping me out, and the place just smelled off, like dust, stale smoke and a certain _je ne sais quoi_.

The scent of old death, a theme reflected by broken equipment and burn marks scorched here and there on the walls just made my unease worse. And through all this, the _korushnai_ leered at us from its station near the Stargate. For once I was going to take a Goa'uld's advice and get the hell out of Dodge. All we needed to do was wait for Daniel's arrival.

But he never showed up.

My irritation really showed after a moment or two of waiting. I flashed my light in the direction of the lab, but could see no sign of Daniel's lanky frame heading our way. What the hell was he doing? I glanced at my watch. 1420 by the glow of the digits. Two minutes since I ordered Daniel and Carter out of the lab. This was getting ridiculous.

"He was pretty excited about the lab, sir," Carter offered when the smoke started leaving my ears.

"I didn't want to hear it from him, and I don't want you to start," I said flatly. "What the hell is keeping him?"

"Daniel Jackson does not understand the need for us to depart in haste," Teal'c suggested. No, make that a reminder, and he had a point. SG-1 had been a unit for six months, and despite all the military skills Daniel was reluctantly picking up, he wasn't about to master the knack of obeying orders without question. He never would. It's his charm, and one of the many sources of my irritation. I knew this going in, and yet I still let him on the team. During moments like these, I regret the blue eyes blinking my way in silent supplication and pleading to be allowed on my team.

"With respect, Colonel, why are we leaving right away?" Carter's curiosity was getting the better part of her military training. I suppose that's the scientist in her.

"You see that big, ugly thing over there?" I pointed at the grimacing caricature, and saw Carter make a face when she noticed it. "That's a handy little snake hint to get the hell off this planet. I intend to obey it."

"Holy Hannah." She could say that again. "Did they put this here when the planet was destroyed?"

"Indeed, Captain Carter," Teal'c said.

"Wow."

"Okay, enough with the sightseeing," I grouched, reaching for my radio. I'll put up with Daniel's antics only so far, and today wasn't the day for playing tourist in what he thought was an alien lab. "Look, Daniel, I won't say this again. Get the hell back to the Stargate _now_ or I will personally boot your ass through the wormhole. Are we clear on this?"

He didn't answer. The Bat radar started screaming in alarm. One of the earliest lessons in field procedure was the radio. Keep it on, and keep in touch. Always. If Daniel forgot that, something had to be wrong.

Crap.

"Stay here," I ordered them. "I'll go see what's keeping him."

"Sir, don't you think we should come with you?" Carter asked as I strode back toward the laboratory.

"No. I want someone by the 'gate, ready to dial when I call. If I need help, you'll hear from me."

Maybe not the wisest decision in the world, but everything was telling me to proceed with caution. I jogged the rest of the way, keeping an eye out for movement-human or otherwise. Nothing jumped out at me except shadows bouncing from my flashlight. That was creepy in and of itself.

I expected to see Daniel bent over a counter, studying an artifact, or, at the very worst, slumped to the ground. When I reached the door, I was greeted by an empty room. There were counters, tables, artifacts and some weird frame at the far side of the room, but no Daniel.

"Oh, shit..." I groaned. I got my MP-5 up and ready as I stepped carefully into the lab. I didn't know what to expect; maybe some weird alien creature or something popping out of the wall to grab me. Who knows what to expect off world? "Daniel? Can you hear me?"

Okay, so calling his name was probably an exercise in futility, but it never hurt to check. I couldn't be sure he wasn't just hiding behind a counter, tied up and gagged, or lying on the ground just out of sight. Hell, maybe he was distracted by something in another room. I didn't get a response, and there was nothing I could see in the room to suggest Daniel had been here earlier.

Daniel had apparently vanished.

I circled the room, intent on peering behind the frame. I didn't see any hidden doors that were immediately obvious, and the floor seemed solid. Short of someone beaming Daniel out of the room or something equally mind boggling, I had no leads.

I _so_ didn't like this newest development.

I radioed the rest of my team, heading back into the hallways to check for any adjacent rooms. "Kids, Daniel's gone. I don't see any sign of him."

"Sir? Confirm your last transmission?" Carter sounded perplexed. Go figure.

"You heard me right, Captain. Daniel's not in the lab, and he's not responding to my calls. We should begin a search. Carter, come join me in front of the lab. Teal'c, dial Earth and give Hammond a detailed account of what happened. Tell him about the _korushnai_ and what we've found. Request backup."

"I am dialing Earth now," Teal'c acknowledged, and I could faintly hear the Stargate's chevrons engaging in the distance.

Carter appeared a moment later, flushed and out of breath. Her eyes widened as she looked at the room from the door. "Some of the artifacts are gone."

"What?" I finished my initial search, glancing in two nearby rooms and finding no sign of Daniel.

"This table was covered with tagged artifacts. Daniel was looking through them when we left," she said as she went over. She reached out to touch an ugly clay figure of man, leaning forward on his elbows in some form of...prostration or something. The perfect gift for a mother-in-law. Carter stopped herself just before she touched the artifact's surface. "He must have stopped to take them."

"So, what, he got snatched by security for raiding the museum?" I didn't like the sarcasm the moment it left my lips, but exasperation does that to a person. Carter didn't like it, either, judging by the quick glare scorching its way toward me. "Okay. Well, Carter, there's no sign of him."

"What do we do, sir? Begin a search in the immediate area?" Carter wandered around the room, almost retracing my steps exactly. "Daniel would never wander off like that. I'm positive he was going to follow us."

There was no question in her voice. She was certain, and up to twenty minutes ago, I was sure Daniel would never pull a stunt like this, either. But it was the only explanation that made sense. I mean, vanishing completely out of sight? Sure, Teal'c and I pulled a similar stunt like this on Cimmeria due to Thor's Hammer, but that was a completely different context.

Right?

I stared down at the scuffmarks I was making on the floor. There was enough dirt and debris on the ground to make our footprints fairly obvious. I immediately started tracing the different paths. Mine were easy to make out, and Carter's were obvious by her smaller feet. The third wandered around the table, accompanied by a big spot made by something hitting the ground, and then moving toward the frame...before vanishing.

Daniel? Where the hell did he go? Maybe good old Sherlock Holmes was right about the impossible being possible. Maybe Daniel was whisked to another side of the base. We needed to search.

"Let's go. The sooner we find Daniel, the sooner we can leave." I motioned to the door.

I was so not looking forward to this.

**

Hammond sent SG-2 and two members of SG-4 to help us in our search, and they showed up twenty minutes after Daniel's disappearance. I divided them into pairs, sending everyone off in different directions. Each couple was to report in on either the quarter or half hour.

I went exploring with Feretti. He was his usual self, wry and irreverent, but beneath the humor was seriousness. He had a soft spot for Daniel that rivaled mine, and he was definitely unimpressed with the news of his disappearance.

"We have a present for you," he said when we first met up with his team.

"If it isn't coffee-scented bait, I don't want to know," I retorted.

"Damn, and to think I was in the commissary just before Hammond called us in," he grumbled, but the humor quickly faded. "We brought a Geiger counter and radiation badges."

"Why?"

"Precautions. You said the Goa'uld contaminated the surface, right? Doc Fraiser wants you to keep an eye on the radiation levels," he said. "Hammond's backing her up. If the levels even show the slightest sign of rising or promising to be dangerous, we're to pull out."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that." I was one step away from sticking my fingers in my ears.

"O'Neill, I'm serious. I know it's Daniel who's missing, but we can't endanger everyone else by running the risk of contamination."

"Fine. You guys go back. I'm staying until I make sure Daniel isn't here." I pointed a finger at him. "I do _not_ leave people behind, Lou. And you know that."

"I know," he said softly, "but sometimes the situation calls for it."

"And don't you give me that military bullshit," I hissed. The irritation of losing my team member was really getting on my nerves. "Daniel's a civilian."

"But the rules apply for him, too, just like they do for the rest of us." He placed a calm hand on my shoulder, but he stopped and focused elsewhere. The big ugly billboard had his attention. "What the hell is that?"

"That, Feretti, is the Goa'uld equivalent of 'keep out,' or something like that according to Teal'c." I glared back at the _korushnai_. If only Daniel had been the one to find it, not me. If he'd seen it, he would have asked the meaning of its presence. He'd have drawn his own conclusions without me chasing after him to get the hell off the planet. "I prefer 'beware of dog,' myself."

"One hell of a bite," Feretti agreed. "I just hope that's not what got to Daniel."

"Don't even _say_ that."

We spent the next couple of hours searching the complex. Halls, big labs, small rooms, corridors... and then more halls, big labs, small rooms and corridors. The place seemed endless. Everywhere we went, we found the same destruction as what met us in the Stargate chamber. Now and again, we discovered large holes from something like grenades smashing through the walls. Again, we uncovered no bodies or signs of who these people were and why the Goa'uld wanted them dead except for the obvious level of technology around us.

"Isn't this creepy?" Feretti whispered as we explored what looked like living quarters next to some office space. The beds and chairs looked human-size, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. The Nox looked human, and guess what? Big laugh on us at the end of the day. Well, the Nox weren't actually laughing at us, but we were getting their tolerant amusement.

"What?" My boots crunched on the debris as I walked.

"Feels like the SGC to me," he said.

"Care to explain that utterly cryptic statement?" I shone my light at what looked like a closet. The part of my mind which whispers worst-case scenarios when I least want them, was giving me a vivid image of Daniel stuffed within the confines. Great, the stress was playing on my already rattled nerves.

"I mean, look at this place. It's underground, got these twisty little tunnels, and loads of technology. I know a military base when I see one." He glanced at me before continuing his search. "You know why the Goa'uld probably trashed them, right?"

"Annoying the snakeheads," I agreed. "Not to mention being a threat from a technical standpoint. Yeah, that occurred to me, too."

I didn't voice the other thought. This was exactly what we want to prevent on Earth. The image came to mind of a similar sign to the _korushnai_ sitting in the 'gateroom on Earth, debris and scorched walls surrounding the horrible face and the Stargate.

It gave me the heebie jeebies.

**

"The radiation level is still pretty low," Feretti said nearly three hours into our search. I was ready for a break, but I wouldn't let myself. The more time we spent searching, the closer we'd come to finding Daniel.

Right?

"We're probably pretty deep underground," I replied. We were looking through yet another set of labs, this time with stuff I wouldn't even hazard to identify. Funny looking machines. Carter would have a blast checking this stuff out. "So we can keep looking without worrying."

"Maybe this means the planet was trashed a long time ago," he suggested.

"Daniel said the same thing." I set down my flashlight and sighed. "Nothing."

"How much more of this place is there left to search?" Feretti wandered back to the door.

"Is that a rhetorical question?" My nerves were pretty well shot by now.

He wasn't about to bait me. He also ignored my comments. "My team said they looped back to the Stargate a few minutes ago. Maybe there's not much else to go through."

I wasn't going to answer. If I had to, I'd search everything all over again if only to make sure I hadn't missed anything the first time. Some clue telling where Daniel had gone. I was adamant on this point: I would not leave without some answer about what happened to him. I would much prefer to leave _with_ him.

"Hey, O'Neill?" Feretti continued talking over my morose silence. He was pointing at the junction down the hallway from the labs. "I think we already passed through this part."

"We did?" I had to blink and stare. Grey halls leading to more rooms. Everything looked the same.

"Yeah, I think there's another bunkroom down that way," he said. He hurried in that direction and skidded to a halt a few dozen feet away. He pointed his gun at the nearest door. "See?"

He'd been using chalk to mark our passage through the halls, and sure enough, there was a big "F" to show we'd been there. I sighed. "So we're starting to double back."

"Sorry." He gave me a quick pat on the back. "Maybe we'll find something this time around."

What we did find were the two members of SG-4. Peters and McTavish, if I remembered their names correctly. Good officers. They weren't looking too enthusiastic as they searched. I knew that feeling all too well.

"Just how big is this place, Colonel?" McTavish asked right off the bat.

"You got me." I knew the answer to my next question before I even asked. "Find anything?"

"No, sir. Just a lot of destruction and even more dust," Peters said.

"There's still a bit more to search, though," McTavish added, not even waiting for his teammate to finish. "We passed a junction a few dozen feet back, before we came onto this corridor. We were going to head back. I think I saw more labs or something down there."

"Mind if I join them?" Feretti asked.

"No, go ahead." I shrugged, trying to roll my shoulders and get rid of some of the built-up tension. "I'm heading back to the Stargate to face the music with the general. Call me if you guys find anything remotely interesting."

"You might be waiting a while," one of them said as they headed off. I wasn't sure who. I didn't really appreciate his comment at all. But it was true. Once I talked to Hammond and told him Daniel was effectively gone, we were going to be so screwed. The general would order us back and list Daniel as MIA.

End of story.

Carter and Teal'c were waiting for me in the main chamber with the rest of SG-2. They ambushed me the moment I showed up. They were tired, I could tell by their faces. Carter was really worried now, and Teal'c was showing signs of being significantly perturbed. That's an interesting look on him.

"Any luck?" I demanded. I really should know better than to ask stupid questions.

"Nothing," she confirmed with a bit of a huff. That's the exasperated tone she usually gets when something wasn't obeying the proper laws of physics. I guess in some weird way, a missing archaeologist fit under that classification.

I opened my mouth to speak. I needed to get to the 'gate and call up Hammond. Daniel was gone. I needed to face the new reality. But the words died on my lips. I heard a shout coming from the direction of the first lab, a cry of pain. My head snapped up as I recognized the voice.

Daniel!

I took off at a run, and knew without checking Teal'c and Carter were in hot pursuit.

A new scent assaulted my senses even before I reached the door. The stench of burnt flesh overrode the other smells. I didn't slow down until I was inside. My eyes immediately fell on Daniel, lying by the base of the strange frame. I barely noticed its dark center as I tossed down my MP-5 to get to Daniel's side.

"Daniel!" I didn't call so much as shout his name. He wasn't responding, and I frankly couldn't blame him. I'd found the source of the smell-a huge burn marring his upper right arm almost to the shoulder. The fabric was gone, and I got a good look at red, scorched and oozing flesh. Oh, God. My stomach churned, and I wasn't sure if I should touch him or not. The only way I knew he was alive was by the ragged, pained breaths he was taking. I reached out to gently touch him. "What the hell is this?"

"It appears to have been caused by a staff weapon," Teal'c said, towering over us and looking anxiously down at Daniel. And you know, I think he was onto something, but huh? How the hell did Daniel get that _here_?

Carter was beside me, her attention fixed south of the arm. She reached for Daniel's hand. She untangled a crumpled piece of yellow legal paper from his limp fingers, unfurling it to read. She frowned as she scanned whatever was written.

"This looks like a Stargate address," she said, sounding decidedly startled.

Okay. I didn't blame her for being surprised. We weren't going to get the answers we needed by hanging around here, and to be honest, now we had Daniel, I really wanted to get the hell off this planet.

"Right. Let's get him back to Earth," I began. But before further orders could form on my lips, Daniel was suddenly awake and clutching me with a desperately intense grip. His face was flushed with pain and exertion, his jaw clenched, his eyes nearly bulging from the sockets. He looked possessed.

"No, Jack!" he ground out. He fixed his gaze on me, and I could hardly tear my eyes away from him. "We're all in very big trouble."

I blinked and turned my gaze to trade looks with Carter. She seened as perplexed as I felt. Huh? I considered telling Daniel to stop, breathe, and back up to the beginning of the story. Like, oh, starting with where the hell he'd been for the last three hours. Even if I'd tried, I never got the chance to get a word in edgewise.

"They're coming!" he gasped out, eyes squeezing shut for a moment before opening to stare at me again. He was barely hanging on by sheer force of will. I could see the strain in his eyes, darkened by the pain. "They're coming..."

We just stared at him. He was beginning to breathe harshly, air catching at the back of his throat every few seconds as he tried to keep the pain at bay. I was the first one to recover from my shock. I leaned closer to him, determined to be patient. Bewildered, but patient.

"Daniel, what the hell are you talking about?" I desperately wanted to sound calm, but the day was beginning to catch up with me. "Where have you been?"

"Long...story," he panted. I didn't think it was possible for him to get any paler, but he managed. Shock was setting in, and it occurred to me there might be other injuries we couldn't see under his clothes. "Just listen to me."

"Yeah, yeah, I heard." I sighed. "You said they're coming."

"Good..." he whispered.

"And now we need to get you back through the 'gate," I continued, trying to figure out the best way to get him off the floor without causing too much pain. Shoulder injuries are not fun to play with, and I knew no matter what I tried, just the mere movement would cause pain. "You're hurt, Daniel, probably seriously."

"Shot," he confirmed. His eyelids began to droop as his voice dropped in volume again. "They're coming..."

"Who?" Carter wasn't about to baby him just yet. She reached out to tap his cheek gently, trying to keep him with us. "Daniel, talk to me. Who's coming?"

"They are."

"A name, Daniel," she pressed. "Come on, you can do it."

"The..." But the second word died as Daniel finally passed out.

This time, we moved. Teal'c joined us on the floor to collect Daniel's body. The more I looked at his burn, the more I wanted him in the infirmary. Two hours ago would have been preferable. The wound was weeping all over him, and the sooner we got rid of that smell... I imagined I'd still be smelling it for days. Now was _not_ the time to freak and vomit. Sensitive stomachs in the field just aren't the way to go.

"How the _hell_ does he do this?" I demanded as I watched Teal'c. He wasn't having any problems with Daniel's weight, but I was there, ready just in case. "First a big fishy alien wants to suck his brain for knowledge, and now he disappears off the face of the planet. How? Why?"

Carter ignored my rant. She was still staring at the crumpled paper. "I wonder what this address is, sir?"

"I don't know, and right now, I don't really care," I snapped. "Teal'c, you got him?"

"I do, O'Neill." The big guy shifted Daniel one last time, until our archaeologist's head was resting against his shoulder.

"Good. Let's go home, kids, then we can figure out what the hell happened."

We made our grand exit. All the while, I wondered what Daniel meant by his words. Who was coming? The Goa'uld? The ones who'd shot Daniel...somehow? I assumed they were coming to Earth, but with what? When?

And why?

How did he know?

I had the feeling our long afternoon would become an even longer night.

General Hammond's face was relieved when he saw us with Daniel, and the expression immediately transformed into worry when he saw the wound. I had no doubt whatsoever he'd easily guess the wound's source. He hurried out of the control room to meet us in the hallway. We weren't waiting for a stretcher. The sooner we had Daniel in the infirmary, the faster we might get our answers. If we met the med team in transit, even better.

"What the hell happened, Colonel?" he demanded.

"You got me there, sir," I said, and I reluctantly fell back to talk to him. Teal'c disappeared around the corner, Carter in tow, and I caught a glimpse of Daniel's head as the big guy carried him away.

Hammond looked flustered. "A member of your team was MIA for several hours, Colonel. I am expecting an explanation!"

"I don't have one, sir!" I tried not to snap, but the combination of stress, anxiety and fatigue were catching up to me. "Daniel's the only one who knows, and he hasn't specified yet where he was or what happened."

"What did he say?" Hammond pressed. I was kind of hoping he wouldn't.

"Uh, something about... somebody coming?" I waved my hands helplessly. "He was pretty adamant about it. Vague, but adamant."

"The Goa'uld?" he asked.

"I don't know," I said. "Possibly."

"There was that sign you and Teal'c discovered on P3R233," he pointed out. "Is there any connection between the planet's destruction and Doctor Jackson's experience?"

"Yeah, there was the, um, Goa'uld _korushnai_ thing. Did Teal'c tell you what it meant?" I waited for Hammond's reply, which came as a nod. Good, one less thing to explain. I was running out of steam. "Right. To be honest, sir, I haven't a clue whether it's just a coincidence or not."

"How so?"

This time I threw my hands up. "I don't know! General, Daniel is the only one who knows what happened while he was gone. He's currently injured, with what looks like a Goa'uld staff burn, a Stargate address and probably one hell of a story. That's all I know."

He reluctantly nodded. "We'll debrief when Doctor Jackson's situation is stabilized."

"Thank you, sir!" I waited for his dismissal then took off down the hallway to catch up with the caravan.

**

**Part II-Vigil**

Janet Fraiser stripped off the plastic gloves from her hands as she stepped out from behind the curtain. I noticed the blood right away, and couldn't help but make a face. She gave us a look when she realized we had congregated silently just a few feet away from the cordoned-off hospital bed.

"How is he?" Carter asked, hopping off her chair in the hope of seeing Daniel before the curtains fully closed. All I saw was a hint of brown hair on the pillow. The sight gave me the mild reassurance that, yes, Daniel was back.

"He's sedated and resting comfortably," the Doc said. "He has second degree burns on his upper right arm which we've cleaned and bandaged. I'm expecting the wound to heal without complications, but it'll take time and he'll be in pain for a while."

"So why is he sedated?" Carter seemed intent on asking all the questions. Fair enough. I was happy just to stand around and wait to get the answers we really wanted. Hopefully, Fraiser would be quick so we could get past her to the bed.

"Dr. Jackson became very agitated while we were cleaning the burn." Fraiser didn't look too happy, and there was something else about her expression which said she was concerned for more than just Daniel's health. "He demanded at one point to know if I was really me."

"Why would Daniel Jackson do such a thing?" Teal'c was completely perplexed. Twice in one day; that's getting to be a record for him.

"I was hoping you three could fill me in," Fraiser replied. She eyed us for several moments. I gave a "who, me?" look which failed to impress her. "Where did Dr. Jackson receive his wound?"

That was the ten million dollar question. I was tempted to up the total to twenty. I decided to steer the conversation in the direction I wanted. Maybe we could get an answer, even if it wasn't _the_ answer I needed.

"Doc, in your professional opinion what was the likely source of Daniel's injury?"

She blinked. I guess the answer was fairly obvious. "I can't say without any contextual certainty, but the type of tissue damage is very similar to the staff weapon wounds I've treated in the past. Dr. Jackson's case is minor, at least compared to the other cases, so I would hazard to say this wasn't a direct hit but more of a glancing blow."

"I concur," Teal'c added. Now that we were moving to something a little more tangible, at least in his experience, the perplexed look was down by several notches. "Daniel Jackson would not have survived a period blank blast."

"Point blank, Teal'c," I sighed. "Doc, there were no Goa'uld or Jaffa on P3R233."

"Excuse me?" She looked stumped, and I wanted to welcome her to the club. "What I just treated suggests otherwise, Colonel."

"Well, we didn't see a sign of their immediate presence. The planet was trashed months ago, if not years. The snakes are long gone." And now I wound up for the clincher. "Daniel did, um, sort of vanish for a little while."

Fraiser's eyebrows started to disappear into her bangs. "I know, I sent the radiation badges for your search. You're saying you don't have any information yet?"

"We're still waiting to find out," Carter cut in. I bet she was worried about what might come out of my mouth in exasperation. She slowly inched between me and Fraiser, and closer to the curtain. Nuts. She'd get there first when Doc gave us permission. "We still have no idea what actually happened."

I got one more glimpse of the brows before they completely vanished. I could tell Fraiser was having a hard time with this concept. I totally related to her confusion. She stared up at me. "How could you possibly not know?"

"Well, Daniel was right behind us, and then..." Carter trailed off, glancing over at me.

"And then," I finished, holding up my hand and blowing air across my palm, "he was gone."

Doc was not amused. "Doctor Jackson isn't Keyser Soze."

"No, but then again, we didn't exactly have the usual suspects present, either." I pointed at the closed curtain. "So can we go in now?"

She finally nodded. "All right, but don't stay too long. The sedatives should wear off by morning."

I nodded acknowledgment, letting Carter and Teal'c in first before following them past the curtains. Finally, the four of us were alone in the aftermath of P3R233. Well, three conscious and one dead to the world. I claimed one side of the bed as Carter took a position on Daniel's left. Teal'c played sentinel by Daniel's feet. Once we were there, I found myself at a loss for words.

Daniel was looking much more relaxed now, cleaned up and tucked in nicely. The white hospital top was rolled up past his shoulder, a huge wad of bandages wrapped around his upper arm. He didn't look too comfortable, judging by the frown creasing his forehead.

"This just doesn't feel right," Carter said in a hushed voice a few moments later.

"To what do you refer, Captain Carter?" Teal'c asked.

"You really need to ask?" I shot at him.

"This," she continued, ignoring me. She reached to put her hand on Daniel's good shoulder. It looked to me like she was absentmindedly stroking his skin. I didn't blame her for the need to touch him. "Everything that happened today on '233. I mean, what exactly happened? Why?"

"Doctor Jackson in the lab with the weird artifacts," I said. I'd just spotted a vacant chair and dragged it closer to Daniel's bed. I knew Carter was giving me a look, but I pointedly ignored her.

"I'm serious, sir!" She let out a sigh, then moved her hand to brush a few hairs from Daniel's forehead. "I just... I don't like not knowing why, sir. This doesn't make any sense. Daniel was _gone_ , and now he's back, but..."

"He is mysteriously injured," Teal'c filled in.

"Exactly."

"Look, right now, all I care about is that Daniel's back. I have one less thing to worry about in my books." I was lying through my teeth at this point, but I needed everyone to relax and leave the anxiety to me. "We're just going in circles. Daniel's the only one who knows, right? So, let's just take it easy until morning. Okay?"

"I don't know if I can do that, sir," Carter said.

"Nor I, O'Neill. Daniel Jackson suffered a significant injury. I do not like to see my friends hurt. I cannot rest until the source of his injury is ascertained." Teal'c was matter-of-fact and firm. "We may still be in danger. If I was still in the service of Apophis and such an event occurred, I would not stop my investigation."

"Yeah? And what would old Apophis have said about the _korushnai_?" I challenged. I do admit I was a little stung about Teal'c's needling. "Would he still be so hot to trot about that?"

As the big guy considered my point for a moment, his shoulders seemed to sink. "I do not believe even he would be eager to explore such a world."

"Well, for once Snakeboy and I have to agree on something." I stretched out, feeling knots in my back complaining at the position. "Okay, if Doc's right, Daniel won't wake up for several hours. We're in for a long night. Who wants the first watch?"

Teal'c and Carter exchanged glances, then Teal'c inclined his head. "I will remain, O'Neill."

"Good. I want one of us here when he wakes up."

I didn't want Daniel dealing with whatever the hell happened to him alone, and secretly I was glad Teal'c took the first shift. Carter could get the second, and I thoroughly intended to be here in the morning when Daniel came to. Sneaky, yeah, but that's the way it would be.

**

My first stop was the showers.

I wanted the stink of the planet out of my clothes and off my skin. The strongest and most disturbing was the burned flesh, lingering harshly in my nostrils. I knew even with washing, it would remain a phantom scent for days, but I had to start somehow.

God, how close did we come to losing Daniel today?

I dumped my jacket on the bench. It felt weird getting changed and showered on my own. Daniel and Teal'c were usually in the room with me, sharing jibes and jokes about the mission. What a trio we make: Daniel hides behind his towel, Teal'c waltzes around buck naked, and I just don't care. Bodies are bodies. But if the mission was bad, we quietly go about our tasks. While I can't speak for them, I take comfort in the company of my friends.

The silence bothered me. I deliberately made as much noise as I could. I slammed the locker open, rustled and banged inside for my towel, soap and clean uniform, and forcefully closed the door. When I threw my things down on the bench, I realized I was out of soap. Great. Just what I needed when I really, desperately, wanted to get clean.

I drummed my fingers on the locker door, eyeing the room. Another annoying thing about being alone: I couldn't bum any from someone else. Or could I? My eyes were drawn to the nametag fixed on the right-side locker. Daniel. He wouldn't mind, right? At the very least, I know which brand he uses and I could always buy him more if he put up a fuss.

Besides, with that burn on his arm, he wouldn't be bathing for the next few days.

Ugh. I held the soap to my nose, trying to banish the physical and imagined memory of that stench. It worked. All I could smell was Daniel, but hey, beggars can't be choosers.

I kicked off my boots and pants after getting rid of my shirt. There was nothing between me and the shower room. I wanted the water hot, preferably just short of being unbearable. I needed the water to melt away the smell, the sweat and hopefully the fatigue just now beginning to replace the adrenaline rush.

I never thought I'd come to the day when adrenaline couldn't carry me through events. I used to thrive on it, and when the end of the rush came, I could relax with a beer and just forget about things. I suppose this means there are too many things to remember or I've invested too much _in_ things that I can't forget even if I tried.

Not that I could ever forget the stunts Daniel pulls when he's around me. What possessed him to throw himself in front of me on Abydos? I'll never figure that out. Sure, trying to stop the fight before it began was probably a good idea, but he didn't have to save me. But he did. Nice of him, though. He gave me back my sanity and I found a new friend, but... what a price. What if Ra hadn't had the sarcophagus? If, if, if. Thank that snaky god he did.

But it didn't end there. All three of my kids like scaring the bejeezus out of me. Carter and her "forget I'm a woman but don't forget I'm a woman damn it!" moments. Teal'c and his sometimes downright puzzling Jaffa things. But Daniel takes the cake more often than anyone else. Carter and Teal'c have yet to one-up Daniel's adventure in Nem-land, and I would personally string either of them up if they even tried. Oh, who am I kidding? It's only a matter of time before they manage to succeed, but great... what will Daniel come up with next?

I let the water pound on my back, relaxing my tense muscles. God, what a day. Why the hell can't we just have a normal mission? The kind where you go through the Stargate, explore a nice _harmless_ planet, then go home in time for dinner? Or are we disqualified from those just because? Using up karma and all that clich crap?

If this last mission weren't so serious, Feretti would be laughing at me. He brings in his mission reports for me to read. SG-2 _never_ gets the type of assignments that we land. He thinks it's funny. I mean, I _saw_ him pointing at my bare back peeking through my uniform when we came back from the Nox. He denied it, but he laughed. Of course, the look faltered when he saw similar holes decorating Daniel's chest and Carter's stomach, but that's neither here nor there.

So just what karma was Daniel using this time?

Oh, crap! Probably the same damn one plaguing me as cold water shot out of the nozzle. I danced around the stall, trying not to slip or scream but letting out an undignified splutter and yelp. Someone starting a shower down the way called out an apology and lukewarm water spared me further agony. I wanted to peek out to see who'd dunnit, because that voice sure as hell sounded like Lou. Bastard.

I felt tired again. I rinsed off the soap, running my hands through my hair and down the length of my body. I was cold, but clean. I quickly left the shower, tired a towel around my waist and walked over to the mirror to shave. My craggy face greeted me, complete with shadows around the eyes and deepening lines around the mouth. I didn't really look that bad, did I?

Apparently so. I brought my hands up to my face and pulled and pushed on the skin. Charlie used to do that when he was trying to make me laugh. He was four, and I was, to put it mildly, severely screwed in the months after Iraq. Only Charlie could get through to me. God, I miss him. Yeah, speaking of karma right there... I either burned up a bunch or collected a bus full for another ten messed up lifetimes.

I stopped with the faces and ran a hand through my damp hair. Water clung to my fingers, and I shook the drops at my reflection. There, blurring greatly improved what I saw in the mirror. But then, what was that? I stepped closer, turning my head and trying to peer at the image of my reflected hair.

Was that water, or was that gray stuff?

I saw a glimpse of brown eyes in the mirror narrowing at my temple. There, just above my sideburn and nestled in front of my ear. Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Gray hairs.

Given the short length I keep my hair, these couldn't have been hanging around for very long. What, two or three weeks to appear since my last haircut? I guess the barber's too nice to draw attention to my obvious ageing, but wow. Look at that.

I bet it all started when I met one Daniel Jackson, or when I accepted him on my team.

My old man once said gray hairs multiply exponentially. He liked his math and threw the words around, so I knew the proper terms before Sam Carter dropped into my life. So if I used Pop's logic, I'd be significantly gray before a year was out.

Oh, boy. Not only was I not a spring chicken anymore, I'd apparently skipped right through summer into fall.

I glared at my reflection, meeting the stare right on. This was definitely not the way I wanted to calm down. I was doing everything but. I needed to refuel my batteries. I decided to forget about the shaving, and I stalked away from the mirror. I didn't need anything else to stress me out just yet. I had all the fun waiting to happen once Daniel rejoined the living and told us what exactly happened.

But first, food and coffee.

**

Carter turned tired eyes my way as I slipped past the curtains. She offered a smile before turning back to Daniel. She had her hand on his shoulder again, rubbing him gently through the fabric of his shirt.

"How's he doing?" I asked softly.

"He's been getting restless," she said.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. A lot of mumbling and movement." She stopped speaking when Daniel moved, legs kicking gently at the covers and his good arm flopping slightly on the bed. "For the last hour or so."

"Just like that?" I asked wryly, taking his hand and putting it back on his chest. His skin felt warm and dry. I guess that was good.

"Yes, sir. Just like that." Carter smiled then rubbed at her eyes. "He did wake up for a moment or two, though."

"He did?" This was news. I focused on her intently, waiting. "What happened?"

"Nothing much. I guess the sedative was still in his system. He stared at me for a few moments, just blinking intently." She did a passable imitation of Daniel's stare, the one he usually subjected to artifacts and other archaeological wonders.

"And that's all?"

She shook her head. "And then he said he really liked my hair the way it is."

I glanced at Carter's head, and the blond hair neatly parted and styled. A bit shorter than it was when we first met, but I guess it was nice. "Yeah, it suits you."

"Thank you, sir." She looked pleased, but her perplexed look returned. "Then Daniel fell asleep again."

"Nothing about what happened?" Yeah, I'm good at those rhetorical questions.

"Not a word," she confirmed.

"Damn." I sighed. I was doing way too much of that. "Okay, go get some shut-eye. I'll have someone call you when Daniel decides to rejoin us."

"Yes, sir." But she didn't move away. She shifted her hand from Daniel's shoulder to his face, gently trying to smooth away the ever-present frown as though it were a stubborn stain. "We came so close to really leaving him behind, sir."

"But we didn't." I remembered the two of us standing over Daniel's bed the last time we reclaimed a missing archaeologist. Daniel, exhausted from his stint as Nem's prisoner, was passed out on the bed, being re-hydrated and not leaving our sight. Carter had that same expression, an almost absentminded fatigue, nearly as odd to see as the panic gripping her when we first realized Daniel was still alive. "Daniel's back."

"If he hadn't cried out then, sir..." she said. I didn't like this particular tangent of her thinking pattern. "If he had reappeared five minutes later or half an hour later, would we still have been there?"

"Hey." I walked over and tapped her on the shoulder. "Carter, take it easy. If we hadn't had those conflicting is-he-really-dead moments about Oannes, Daniel would still be keeping the fishguy company. I don't like ifs, Carter. Second-guessing doesn't do you any good. Trust me."

"How can you just stand there and be so calm about this?" she demanded, and quickly added a belated "sir."

"Practice," I said with a wry smile. "I don't recommend it."

"This sucks, pardon my stealing your cliché." A smile of her own tugged at her lips. "With Oannes, at least we had the illusion of his death."

"And that made it a bit better. I know." I squeezed her shoulder. "Having someone you care about go MIA isn't fun."

"No closure," she said softly.

"Yeah."

She nodded slowly before her head came up and she burst into rapid speech. "Oh, I was thinking, sir, about other possibilities concerning what happened on P3R233."

"I'm listening." I moved closer to Daniel to check how he was doing. He was still relatively dead to the world.

"Maybe '233 isn't completely uninhabited," she suggested. "It's possible they were hiding from us in the ruins, somewhere. They probably thought we were Goa'uld. Like Cartago. They saw Daniel alone, snatched him and when they were finished, they put him back where they found him."

"Complete with a signature burn as a souvenir?" Oy, that sounded farfetched, and I guess my thought showed on my face. "They got ticked at Daniel playing with the goodies so they decided to pick him up and give him a talking to?"

She made a face. "Something like that."

"We've been through this one already, haven't we? In other circumstances, I'd give your theory a definite maybe. Good thought, though. We searched the base probably from top to bottom. Not one sign of habitation, human or otherwise."

"That you saw, sir," she added.

"Right, but still. I tend to believe in things I can see. There wasn't any evidence of anything." I offered her a smile. "Sorry."

"That's okay, sir." She let out another sigh, then yawned. "I just want some answers."

"So do I, Carter. Now get to bed."

I waved her off and reclaimed the still-warm chair. I glanced at my watch. 0200. The night was nearly over, and hopefully my answers would come soon enough.

**

**Part III-Revelation**

I heard the nurses going about their rounds as I slowly drifted awake. I moved in the chair, feeling stiff muscles twinge in protest. There was a nurse on the other side of the bed, inspecting the bandage on Daniel's shoulder. I peeked one eye open to watch her as she changed the dressing.

My watch read 0530. Great. I stretched, and gave the nurse a nod of greeting as she finished and moved on to her next patient.

"Is she gone?" a sleepy voice asked.

I sat up and stared at the bed. Dazed blue eyes looked back at me as Daniel gave a listless smile.

"For the moment," I said. I couldn't help grinning. "How are you feeling?"

He gave a one-shoulder shrug. "Sore. How long?"

"You've been asleep for a good, oh, nine hours. Catching up on your beauty sleep."

"Ugh." Daniel made a face, then his expression suddenly became neutral as the humor faded. "Jack... you're still a colonel, right?"

"You really think they'd promote _me_ to general?" I joked, but Fraiser's comments about his question the night before came to mind. "It's me, Danny, and you've had me scared as hell."

He let out a slow breath. "Sorry."

"Just sorry?" I leaned closer, really wanting to see his reaction to my next words. "I found gray hair last night, Daniel. Not brown. _Gray_ ones. Do you know what that means?"

A humorless smile turned up his lips slightly. "I won't comment on the ageing gracefully issue."

"Yeah, right. You are hazardous to my health! I'm lucky you..." I stopped. Daniel was staring at me, what little color he had in his face slowly draining away. His good arm pulled the injured one close to his chest, and he dropped his gaze the moment he realized I was staring. "Daniel, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing," he said softly.

"Bullshit. You look like you've just seen a ghost!"

I got an alarmed glance, but he wouldn't answer.

"Daniel, do you remember what happened on P3R233?" I asked, as gently as I could. Something was wrong, that much was obvious. Something had happened more than just him being hurt and coming back with the screaming meemees. The beginning would be the perfect place to start.

He nodded slowly.

"Do you, uh, mind sharing?" I waited for him to begin. "Please?"

Daniel played with the fringe of the blanket then looked at me. "Help me up."

"Uh, is that a good idea?" I asked, eyes wandering to the bandage on his arm.

"I'm fine," he lied. I always know he's fibbing when he uses that line. "I want to sit up."

"If you say so." I'd do what he asked, but I'd use my own discretion whether to stop or not. "Tell me if it hurts."

"It won't hurt," he said, but he bit his lip as I put my arm around his shoulders and gently helped him up. His breath caught for a second, but he gave me a grateful look once he was comfortable. "Thanks, Jack."

"Hey, no problem." I fussed with the blanket for a second, and couldn't help straightening his shirt where it had bunched up on one side as he sat up. "Was it a staff weapon?"

He blinked. "Sorry?"

"Your arm. We've been thinking it looks like a Jaffa shot you. Teal'c said so, too. Of course, we haven't a clue on how it happened, but..." I shrugged, knowing I was babbling. Daniel glanced down at the bandage, and he frowned as he got a good look at the white material. "So?"

"Yeah, it was a Jaffa," he said softly.

"And you do realize there were no Jaffa on P3R233, right?" I had to state the obvious.

"I know." He looked at me, hesitant for a second. "Jack, promise you won't butt in while I'm talking. I've been interrupted so many times in the last twenty-four hours I'm ready to scream."

"Why would I do that?" I demanded before noticing the dirty look he gave me. Okay, so maybe I do stop him at times when he babbles on about this and that on missions, but I only do it because he's giving me way more information than I actually need. I want to know if he can dial the DHD, not whether there's a particular significance to their unique point of origin symbol. "Fine. I won't interrupt you."

He nodded and took a deep breath. "All right. You came to the lab to pull us out, and I stayed behind long enough to collect some of the artifacts. I was hoping I could maybe decipher the script at a later point and maybe find out where the objects came from. I picked up one in particular, and noticed a flash directly behind me. That...mirror thing."

"Yeah, the big frame. We found you lying in front of it." I leaned forward expectantly. "So you saw a flash, and...?"

"I went to look. The mirror was on, reflecting the room but I wasn't in the image. I was curious, and so I-"

I knew exactly what happened next. "And then you touched it."

He glared at the interruption and wouldn't continue until I gave a sheepish shrug. When he seemed certain I wasn't going to open my mouth, he gave a grave nod and continued. "And so I touched it. I felt a shock, but that was it. Nothing extraordinary. I decided to come after you guys for help to bring the mirror back to Earth. But when I reached the Stargate, you guys were gone."

"We didn't see you in the Stargate room," I added. "When we came back, there was no sign of you."

"Jack, let me finish!" he warned. "You guys were gone, so I figured you'd left without me."

"I would never do that!" I cut in again. My anxieties during the search came back to haunt me, the emotions reflecting in my voice. Not a stellar moment. "I don't leave anyone behind unless there's a damn good reason for it. Six foot fishes with mind-fucking devices are probably the only exception to that rule."

Daniel smiled at me, and he seemed to relaxe a little bit. "Thank you."

"Ah, it's nothing." I waved off his reaction, but I was secretly pleased. "Go on. You looked for us, we were gone, and so you...?"

"I dialed Earth. When I got through to the other side of the wormhole, I was arrested and dragged to the infirmary as a suspected Goa'uld." He caught the way my eyes widened in disbelief and rushed into his next sentence. He was urgent, but he also sounded weary. "Please, just listen to me, Jack! Let me finish. Please."

Two pleases in five seconds? I held up my hands. "I didn't say anything, Daniel."

"I can see it in your face," he said, letting out a sigh. "Everyone there was the same way. They wanted to know why an archaeologist, last known to be living in Egypt, was coming through the Stargate with SG-1's signal code while Earth was under attack by the Goa'uld."

"Uh, okay..." I bit my lip and kept my words in. I just listened.

I heard every word that came from Daniel's lips. He spoke of the fate of the other reality, how Earth was wiped out by the attack fleet, the deaths he witnessed-including my own-and his own narrow escape back through the Stargate. Oh, and the clincher-how he carried with him information which could help our own world against the same massacre.

But did I believe him?

Not really.

I live in a world of gray, but I prefer black and white. I did believe him, but I also thought he was probably nuts or hallucinating or something. When Daniel fell silent and Fraiser arrived to check on her patient, I sat silently and reflected on what I'd just heard. I had the evidence in front of me: a wounded, reappearing archaeologist and his note. Was it really evidence of his fantastical story?

I didn't know. It's true we've seen enough things since the Stargate opened that anything seemed possible. I mean, Thor's Hammer, anyone? The Stargate itself is pretty impressive. All those little toys and gadgets the Goa'uld use and call magic. I'm no scientist, but those very things tell me there is more out there than Carter has a name for.

But I'd hit my limit with this story. Sometimes there are things that just don't register as possible. There was a practical side of me, too, and it suggested I might look at a few possibilities that might make more sense. Was it possible Daniel...made it up?

Not deliberately, I mean. The look in his eyes said he really believed this, and Daniel can't lie. At least not to me. He's transparent when his eyes get a little shifty and he blushes a little too much to be convincing. I've sat across from him at one too many poker games not to recognize that fact. So I immediately discarded the outright lying probability, and focused on less subtle things.

Maybe Daniel was compromised, like we were with Nem's machine. A belief was planted in his mind which he had no personal reason to doubt. Why would he if the so-called evidence matched his story? And for all we knew, the Goa'uld _wanted_ us to believe there was an attack on the way. I didn't really want to consider that happening, but who knew? It may not have been the Goa'uld, someone else with an ax to grind could have taken Daniel and warped his brain. Another possibility-one I had too much personal experience with-was a chance Daniel's wound was due to torture or something similar. Sure, a staff weapon may have caused the wound, but there are plenty of other tools that could do the job just as well.

From my own history, I knew what pain could do to your mind, when you needed something to anchor yourself to. I had Sara to think about and that fueled my determination. I would have expected Daniel to think about Sha're, but who knows how people's minds work. Daniel's whole fantasy was a big Freudian slip waiting to happen. I mean... what, does Daniel feel that guilty about opening the Stargate in the first place causing him to dream he didn't do it somewhere else?

That was going way too deep for me. I'd take aliens any day over blatantly analytical psycho stuff. Playing along with MacKenzie a few months back was bad enough. This was way too much information about my friend's noggin that I didn't really need. Thankfully Doc came to snatch Daniel away right about when I started to go cross-eyed with the possibilities.

Their departure gave me a much-needed reprieve. I could relax, knowing Fraiser would do her best to make sure nothing was wrong upstairs, besides the obvious. She'd be doing an MRI and an EEG... all FYI. If his brains were scrambled more than they normally were, she'd know down to the aberrant smear on the overhead.

In the meantime, the nurses gave me the option of either leaving or staying. I could remain so long as I stayed out of their way. They bustled around me and changed the sheets and tidied. I twiddled my thumbs and wandered around the space formerly occupied by Daniel. The nurses had ample opportunity to practice their dirty looks as I played with knobs and fiddled with useless wires. I stopped until their attention wandered away again.

Daniel came back an hour or so later, looking particularly unhappy with his lot in life. He had his arm held tightly to his chest, and gave me a weary smile as his butt landed on the edge of the bed.

"So, what's the deal?" I asked.

"I'm me," he said, a definite bitter note in his voice. "At least they didn't drug me this time to do their tests."

"Oh, in your..." I wanted to say "fantasy," but that choice of words wouldn't go over well. I waved my hands for emphasis.

"Yeah." He glared down at his white scrubs. "Can I at least get some decent clothes?"

"Did Doc say you could leave?" I didn't want to get in her way, or step on her tiny toes. For a little woman, she wields a nasty big needle.

"Yes, I did," Fraiser said. I nearly jumped at her sudden appearance behind us. "If you'd like to get his clothes, Colonel, Daniel can go. He's off active duty for the next few days, and following a few more tests, he'll be reinstated. But I want him to rest."

"Rest. Right." I looked at Daniel, still defiantly sitting on the bed. "She said you have to rest."

"I heard."

"So rest." I guided him onto his back as Fraiser raised up the top of the bed so he could sit. "Take it easy, and I'll be back in a few."

"Fine."

I rushed back to the locker room, where I knew Daniel had a spare set of BDUs hiding in his locker. The errand gave me something to concentrate on while my subconscious filtered through the news. I still didn't know what to believe. What proof did we really have? The wound, the missing time, the note, and Daniel's word. That normally would have been enough. This was Daniel, probably the most level-headed if a tad over-excited and passionate man I had the questionable pleasure of knowing.

But I really needed to be sure.

Daniel looked like he was napping when I returned. I tiptoed up to the bed and set the clothes on the rolling table. I could wait until he woke up, but then I caught a glimpse of blue as he peered at me. I waved and gestured to the BDUs.

"Thanks, Jack," he said, letting out a yawn before stretching very, very carefully.

"Any time." I stood back, hovering deliberately as he started to get off the bed. "Need help?"

He was going to say no, but I fixed him with a knowing look. He sighed and glanced down at his arm. "Just a bit, I guess."

"You ain't got anything I haven't seen before," I said flatly.

His cheeks deepened to a dusky red. "Yeah, I guess not."

I was helping him with his boots and doing up the laces when I decided to revive the topic. I wanted to see how close he would be in retelling the story. Sadly necessary, but it would put to rest some of my worries on whether this was totally made up. Inconsistencies are a flyboy's best friend when his real friend was going bonkers, or at least had a crazy story or two. "So, tell me again what happened? You touched the, uh, mirror, and...?"

Daniel let out a huff of air and started talking again. He was deliberate with his words this time, putting careful emphasis now and again on parts of his phrases which were intended to get my attention. I think I was frustrating him, which under most circumstances is fun, but not here.

"And then General O'Neill agreed to meet with Teal'c, who was still Apophis' First Prime." I stopped tucking in his pant cuffs and stared up at him. This was new, wasn't it? Daniel noticed my look and frowned. "I mentioned that before, Jack. You were a general, and Teal'c never had the chance to betray Apophis."

"Really." Okay, whether or not I believed him wasn't in question at the moment. The very possibility and meaning of those things had my attention. No Daniel meant no Sha're, or so I would assume, and with no Sha're that reality never took her to Chulak where we met Teal'c. That's easy logic, but the whole general thing? "General, huh?"

"Yeah." He made a face. "Let me just say he wasn't nearly as charming as you are."

"Is that so?" I straightened up and put my hands on my hips. I tried to imagine what it would be like to be a general. Right. I have no qualms about possibly never making that rank here. I pride myself on my attitude way too much. But really, how the hell would I have been promoted over there? Maybe if I worked myself to the grave and developed a distinct lack of personality? Or kept going the way I was before I met Daniel? "How charming is charming?"

"More memorable than anything else." His voice grew bitter. I thought I saw regret on his face. "He just wanted to blow the hell out of the Goa'uld. That's it. He was angry the Jaffa were destroying the planet, and there wasn't anything he could really do. They tricked me into giving the address for Chulak, and they wasted one of their opportunities to escape by sending a bomb."

I let out a low whistle. Yeah, that was the old me. The one who would have gladly done the same to Abydos if Daniel hadn't talked me out of it. Why was that man still alive, anyway? They opened the 'gate, and they obviously had killed Ra. So why wasn't that Jack O'Neill previously dead if there hadn't been a Daniel Jackson? "I never would have sent that bomb. Not like that."

He smiled. "I know."

"So... uh, what happened when the general talked to Teal'c? And why did he, anyway?"

"I asked him to," Daniel said.

"You... _asked_ him to?" Oh, boy. That part sounds like me. Daniel probably looked flustered and lost and just smiled or blinked those eyes. "Good job."

He didn't look so thrilled. "He tried to convince Teal'c to abandon Apophis. At least, that's what I think he said. We were watching from the security camera. The context was all wrong, though. I mean...they'd just blown up Chulak!"

"And killed Ry'ac along with everyone else there." Ah. I could perfectly well imagine a pissed off Teal'c in that situation. "Goodbye, dear General?"

"Yeah." Daniel sighed, then seemed to rouse a bit. He stared at me, determination bringing color back to his cheeks. "Jack, this is why we have to act. We need to go to the coordinates I brought back with me and stop the Goa'uld. We may even get there before-"

"Whoa, ho, ho!" I held up my hands. I wasn't going to let him get upset over something until I was satisfied of its veracity. "Easy, Daniel. You want us to _what_?"

"The coordinates," Daniel repeated. "The paper I brought with me. Where is it?"

"Uh, I think Carter has it."

The curtains around the bed rustled, and Carter's face appeared at the entrance. "I have it right here, Colonel. Hey, Daniel. It's good to see you awake!"

He gave her a halfhearted smile as she came to hug him very carefully. Teal'c followed in her wake. I backed off a bit, letting my teammates have their reunion. The relief on their faces was nice to see, but I bet it was going to be short-lived as soon as Daniel opened his mouth again.

"How is your arm this morning, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked.

"Sore." Daniel was giving him a weird look, like the big guy had a second head or something. What, was it the other Teal'c who'd shot him in his dream? There's enough unfinished and unspoken business between those two that neither one really wants to touch. I could understand Daniel substituting Teal'c for whoever really did this to him. "Doctor Fraiser says it'll be okay in a few days."

The conversation didn't progress much further at that point. A male nurse barged in, explaining it was time to change the bandage. Daniel sat on the bed, looking like a patient martyr as the white wrappings were unwound and the soiled fabric discarded. We were all treated to a very ugly reminder of what had happened last night.

"Oh, boy." Carter blanched and quickly handed Daniel the paper before retreating a few steps. Poor kid. Either she doesn't like wounds too much, or she doesn't have too much experience with them. I think my second guess was way more accurate, especially after our little jaunt to Antarctica. My teeth still grind at the memory of her trying to reset my leg.

"We desire to be told what transpired yesterday on P3R233." Teal'c stood next to Daniel and gave him a stern look. "We were extremely perturbed by your disappearance, Daniel Jackson."

"Yeah, uh, sorry about that." Daniel fumbled with the paper, wincing as the wound was checked for infection and other nasty things. He restarted his story, going through the details I'd heard before. I wandered over to the next bed, perching and resting my elbows on my knees. I watched as Carter's and Teal'c's expressions became confused. Well, Carter was confused and Teal'c was himself, but I didn't blame either of them.

Daniel definitely picked up on their reactions, though. His words became more passionate, and while his bad arm hampered his movements, his left hand was flying all over the place. He hung onto the piece of paper, waving it around like it was a target for us to keep in focus.

"These are the coordinates the Goa'uld will launch their attack from," he said, and I imagined him giving a lecture and using a laser pointer to clinch his argument. "It was a warning."

"Or so your vision foretells," Teal'c corrected. Oh, that was a good one. I hadn't thought of the vision thing. I didn't know how accurate that was. How did Teal'c explain the wound?

"No! It wasn't a vision or a dream or a hallucination. It was real!" He winced as his response caused the nurse to do something painful to the wound. Daniel glared at him for a moment before continuing. "Now, I know this is hard for you guys to believe, but I swear that the entire time you thought I had disappeared on P3R233, I was experiencing an alternate reality."

I found myself playing a combination of devil's advocate and archaeologist's smartass. I think it was the fatigue talking. "And you were there, and you were there, and there's no place like home."

"As a matter of fact, you _were_ there!" I got the dirty look, but Daniel directed his words at the others. I did realize one thing, though. If Daniel continued to get upset, I'd have to step in to calm him down. Fraiser would kill me if his blood pressure went through the roof.

Bless Carter, she was doing just that by being her calm and rational self. Now that she was finally getting her answers, she was being oh so analytical. Good for her. "Daniel, it's not that we don't believe you."

"So you do." Nope, he wasn't buying it just yet. I knew that tone way too well.

I didn't help by speaking up again. "No. It's just that we don't believe you." I wanted to add "yet," but Daniel interrupted before I could finish my thought.

"Jack, this is _very_ important."

I knew that, and Carter certainly realized it. She held up her hands to stop us from bickering. "All right. Daniel, when you were in this alternate reality, were there differences?"

I sat back to listen as Daniel rattled off a brief list. Yeah, we got the Teal'c bit already. I knew all about Daniel not meeting himself and his theory that the other Daniel died in Egypt. But the last bit?

"You and Jack were engaged to be married-" he said to Carter, but I really, really had to cut in.

"Excuse me?" I almost wanted to wiggle my finger in my ear. That had yet another detail he'd neglected to say before. What an item-Carter and me! Oh, boy. I shuddered to even consider _that_ possibility. Even Daniel at his nuttiest, most flakiest, couldn't come up with something so utterly bizarre as that, right?

That was the cue for my mental hamster to start running on the wheel. Okay. So, what if Daniel was right? Even as Carter argued with him about the theoretical stuff that started to zone me out, I wondered if he was really telling the truth. Everything so far was pretty much adding up, even with him throwing out more details now and again. Nothing he'd said contradicted his prior statements, and given his current emotional state, he looked like he was ready to blow.

He wouldn't just make up such an impossible thing, right?

Carter had moved on as I grappled with the very odd concept. "Even if you did actually experience this alternate reality, doesn't the fact that there were differences mean that we won't suffer the same fate?"

I could see a change in Daniel's face. The desperation was fading, and the hope was building. Carter was beginning to think he was onto something. She had that same look when Daniel blew her theory about the Stargate back on Abydos.

"Yes, but the _defining_ event-the death of Ra-occurred in _both_ realities."

And then Teal'c bought a clue. "An attack of retribution."

Daniel cheered them on as they started to keep pace with him, but I hung back. I wasn't quite decided yet. If Daniel was right-as Teal'c seemed inclined to agree-there was a chance a Goa'uld fleet was launching or about to launch an attack on Earth. The only way we could find out was to check the coordinates Daniel brought home. It wouldn't hurt to send a MALP through the Stargate, right?

Oh, what the hell. As the cliché goes, it's better to be safe then sorry. I decided to go talk to Hammond, and get the recon probe on its way as soon as we were able. The sooner we had this out of the way, the sooner we could either relax or deal with the problem as it developed.

That's the way it should have gone, but the newly minted Lt. Colonel Samuels breezed in with news about that damned hearing with Kinsey. The threat to the Stargate program pretty well sucked the breeze from the sails, and with the chill only felt when someone walks over your grave, we suddenly looked forward to a very real threat about to arrive from Washington.

Daniel's eyes were fixed on Samuel's back as the pansy left. The news had us unsettled. Truth be told, we didn't have the mental energy for both Daniel's story and what was about to descend on us. Carter asked for permission to leave, which I granted, but Teal'c and I stayed behind with Daniel.

"What about the address?" Daniel asked. He held up the yellow paper and practically waved it beneath my nose.

I put my hand on top of his and lowered it. "We'll check it out."

"When? The sooner we go, the better," he said.

"I know, but..." I motioned at the doorway where Samuels had just vanished. "We kind of have to deal with this first."

He sighed. "It's not going to go away. The sooner-"

"Daniel." I touched his good shoulder. "I know."

"But we will?"

"As soon as we can. Let's deal with Kinsey and the crap he's undoubtedly trying to fling at us. Okay?" I gave him a halfhearted smile, and he nodded. "Good."

And for now, that would have to do.

**

"Old age is like a plane flying through a storm.  
Once you're aboard, there's nothing you can do."  
~Golda Meir

*fin*

 


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